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Kaspersky's founder is known to openly work for KGB. > At the age of 16, Kaspersky entered a five-year program with The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher Sch

Kaspersky's founder is known to openly work for KGB. > At the age of 16, Kaspersky entered a five-year program with The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher School,[14][15] which prepared intelligence officers for the Russian military and KGB.[6][7] He graduated in 1987[14] with a degree in mathematical engineering and computer technology.[3][7] After graduating college, Kaspersky served the Soviet military intelligence service [5] as a software engineer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Kaspersky#:~:text=At%20the%20age%20of%2016,mathematical%20engineering%20and%20computer%20technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Kaspersky#:~:text=At%20....

Hizonner 2y ago
George Washington was "openly" in the British colonial forces (and for that matter Robert E. Lee was in the Union army, and Mao Zedong was in the RoC revolutionary army). I knew dozens of people in my computer security career who'd "openly" been in technical branches of the (mostly US) military, or done classified work for defense contractors, or in a few cases who had worked for outright spy agencies (on what I do not know). Maybe a handful of them might have still been not-openly working for those agencies; most almost certainly were not. Many of them were still obviously sympathetic to those agencies' agendas. That did not necessarily extend to helping them out in any way (although sometimes it definitely did). A few sure seemed exactly the opposite, and if they were in deep cover, they probably could have served that goal better by just keeping their mouths shut. In a few cases they helped to build organizational or technical structures that clearly would have made it harder for anybody, including the agencies they'd previously worked for, to subvert their new employers' security guarantees. So, 35+ years ago, at 16, Kaspersky took what was probably the only technical education opportunity available to him in Soviet Russia(TM). At maybe 20, he took what was probably the only job available to him. Going by that same Wikipedia article, apparently within a year or two, he moved to private industry (such as it was in that place and time). That included getting an early release from military service (not sure how that interacted with the dissolution of the USSR, which happened at more or less the same time). That's par for the course. It is very, very hard to find a person or company in that space that's squeaky clean, has no conflicts of interest, and/or has no ties at all with any government or government agency you might be afraid of. If it's a large company (bigger than Kaspersky), and has been around a while, there's a real chance that it's released products with all kinds of weird back doors, with and/or without the knowledge of its executive management. Maybe even back doors for multiple competing actors. And at the same time it may release many more products that don't have them. I don't think Kaspersky (the man) is some kind of revolutionary, nor do I think Kaspersky (the company) is going to openly defy the Russian government. I also don't think that their trustworthiness couldn't change at any given time. I do think that they're at least averagely "good". And I think that they get way more than their share of paranoia, with tons of people just assuming that they've "always" done things with their products that, frankly, they couldn't realistically have gotten away with doing.
- dsabanin 2y ago
  I believe you're deluding yourself. Firstly, KGB wasn't the only option available to him to get a technical education, nor the only job available. People joined KGB for ideological reasons, at least those who stayed. Secondly, there's no way KGB is going to forego an opportunity to have a rootkit running on their main enemies' systems. Simple ability to ignore certain malware is already priceless. If Kaspersky himself wouldn't do it, they would replace him with someone who would. But chances are, Kaspersky would see it himself as a patriotic act.
- mickelsen 2y ago
  Well put. I like Kaspersky and share the opinion that there's not much they can do but operate within their geopolitical constraints. It's a pity that the world has come to this, but as I'm neither Russian nor American, I have no horse in this race.

Hizonner 2y ago

George Washington was "openly" in the British colonial forces (and for that matter Robert E. Lee was in the Union army, and Mao Zedong was in the RoC revolutionary army). I knew dozens of people in my computer security career who'd "openly" been in technical branches of the (mostly US) military, or done classified work for defense contractors, or in a few cases who had worked for outright spy agencies (on what I do not know). Maybe a handful of them might have still been not-openly working for those agencies; most almost certainly were not. Many of them were still obviously sympathetic to those agencies' agendas. That did not necessarily extend to helping them out in any way (although sometimes it definitely did). A few sure seemed exactly the opposite, and if they were in deep cover, they probably could have served that goal better by just keeping their mouths shut. In a few cases they helped to build organizational or technical structures that clearly would have made it harder for anybody, including the agencies they'd previously worked for, to subvert their new employers' security guarantees. So, 35+ years ago, at 16, Kaspersky took what was probably the only technical education opportunity available to him in Soviet Russia(TM). At maybe 20, he took what was probably the only job available to him. Going by that same Wikipedia article, apparently within a year or two, he moved to private industry (such as it was in that place and time). That included getting an early release from military service (not sure how that interacted with the dissolution of the USSR, which happened at more or less the same time). That's par for the course. It is very, very hard to find a person or company in that space that's squeaky clean, has no conflicts of interest, and/or has no ties at all with any government or government agency you might be afraid of. If it's a large company (bigger than Kaspersky), and has been around a while, there's a real chance that it's released products with all kinds of weird back doors, with and/or without the knowledge of its executive management. Maybe even back doors for multiple competing actors. And at the same time it may release many more products that don't have them. I don't think Kaspersky (the man) is some kind of revolutionary, nor do I think Kaspersky (the company) is going to openly defy the Russian government. I also don't think that their trustworthiness couldn't change at any given time. I do think that they're at least averagely "good". And I think that they get way more than their share of paranoia, with tons of people just assuming that they've "always" done things with their products that, frankly, they couldn't realistically have gotten away with doing.

dsabanin 2y ago
I believe you're deluding yourself. Firstly, KGB wasn't the only option available to him to get a technical education, nor the only job available. People joined KGB for ideological reasons, at least those who stayed. Secondly, there's no way KGB is going to forego an opportunity to have a rootkit running on their main enemies' systems. Simple ability to ignore certain malware is already priceless. If Kaspersky himself wouldn't do it, they would replace him with someone who would. But chances are, Kaspersky would see it himself as a patriotic act.
mickelsen 2y ago
Well put. I like Kaspersky and share the opinion that there's not much they can do but operate within their geopolitical constraints. It's a pity that the world has come to this, but as I'm neither Russian nor American, I have no horse in this race.